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Friday, February 10, 2017

Silver Birch Poem

It's Poetry Friday, so that means today is all about poetry.
After your visit here, go check in on more poetry with Katie at The Logonauts. She is hosting today.

High School graduation photo

Today I want to share my poem that yesterday was published online at Silver Birch Press. On January 30, I was searching around and thought I'd check and see if Silver Birch Press had a new call for submissions. And - voila! - they did. The deadline for submitting was January 31 - the next day! I debated about 30 seconds and decided I was wasting time doing that. Fortunately, I usually see a short deadline as a motivator.

So I plunged on in and wrote a couple of really awful things that day. Then at the end of the evening this one started to come together. I had it mostly finished, but needed to get my Bio, writing description and pictures together. On the deadline day, Jan. 31, I put the final edits and revisions to the poem, and sent it all off.

Teen years were not always easy ones back in the 1960's, but we survived - and I'm kind of happy I didn't have to do them in the 2010's.

And now a happy haiku in the midst of our snowstorm. I'm watching the slowly settling flakes mount up on pine and spruce branches, and then the wild wind comes along and swirls them off in, I would say small tornadoes, but they are pretty big ones today!
And suddenly there's a foot of fresh snow...time to shovel off the car.

Oh wow, you really captured the in-between-ness of 17, Donna! And I love how your new author pic mirrors your 17 year old one. It's interesting to me to read about your fear... I was fearful of doing the WRONG thing. I didn't want to make any mistakes. As if! OF course now I have a deep fondness for those mistakes and want to tell that 17 year old, whatever you do, it will be exactly the right thing. xo

Oh, yes, I had those same fears of doing the WRONG thing, too. I was a good follower of directions and great at school rules. I found my voice after graduation. And, yes, mistakes and all, we found our way!

Had a break today, but there is more on the way for Sat., Sun. and Mon. - three days straight! We had 14+ inches in this storm with lots of wind and temps in the low teens. Looking forward to grandkids coming up north to play in it next week!

I was one who felt I never knew enough to be an expert, so kept my mouth shut and watched and listened and read. I couldn't understand how those around me could be so sure of everything and speak like experts! I walked a different path than most 17 year olds.

Congratulations, Donna. I left a comment for you at Silver Birch Press. I was off to college at 17, had to find a new way to live then. You have snow; we have seventies. Such a time of weather for both of us this week!

We seem to be taking care of the snow this year....like two years ago. Last winter we had a mild one, so we wee due again. It's always back and forth here. Never know what the winter will be like on the coast. You can do it next year!